Are civil engineers ready for 80 years of climate change?

Climate change is one of the most urgent concerns of our times and while it’s important to do everything we can to prevent it (or at least to mitigate it), it’s also important to be realistic about the fact that it will have an impact on our daily lives and in some cases that impact has the potential to be acute – if not managed properly. 

In the UK, possibly the most visible sign of this is the flooding which has, sadly, become a recurring occurrence in certain parts of England, especially the coastal areas.  With that in mind, the emphasis has to shift from a reactive approach to a proactive one.

Eighty years of climate change?

In reality, nobody can know for sure how long climate change will last or what impact it will have for the simple reason that there are so many variables involved.  We can, however, make some educated guesses based on current data and use these as a basis to prepare for the worst and hope to achieve the best.  With that in mind, government agencies, especially those with an environmental remit such as the English Environment Agency, are working to create medium- to long-term strategies for dealing with what it might bring.  For example, the English Environment Agency is in the process of developing an 80-year flood and coastal-erosion risk-management strategy to see England into the next century (and do its best to ensure that it survives way beyond that).

What could 80 years of climate change actually mean in practice?

In practice, 80 years of climate change will mean different things to different people.  To people living in coastal areas, for example, it could mean (a further) 80 years of regular upheaval as flooding becomes more common (due to rising sea levels caused by ice melting and being unable to refreeze) and more severe (as coastal erosion allows the water to come further inland, thus causing further erosion and creating a vicious circle).  To people in the south of England, it may mean repeated water shortages as longer, hotter summers lead to reservoirs running dry.  To people through the UK (and indeed the world) it may mean food shortages as farmers struggle to grow crops and potentially result to measures such as the excessive use of chemical fertilisers which might produce short-term results while causing (further) long-term problems.

Are civil engineers ready for 80 years of climate change?

First of all, it has to be noted that dealing with climate change is not just the responsibility of civil engineers.  Everyone has a part to play.  In fact, there’s a very strong case for arguing that small changes made by many people will ultimately have more impact, through sheer weight of numbers, than the bigger changes made by a small group of people such as civil engineers.  Notwithstanding this, however, civil engineers are going to play a huge role in the fight as limiting the impact of climate change will require quite literally building sustainability into all areas of our lives, from the buildings in which we live and work, to the transport used to get us from A to B (along with the goods and services we need to live our lives) and the devices, appliances and tools we use for work and leisure.  Fortunately, there are very encouraging signs that this is already happening.  For example, throughout the UK, new buildings (both residential and commercial) have to meet sustainability criteria including energy-efficiency standards, which help to reduce their carbon footprint.  These are, however, just minimum standards.  Increasingly the civil engineering industry is working to exceed these and to develop buildings which are both sustainable and smart, for example, using solar panels to generate their own power which they then manage in a highly intelligent way to promote sustainability without compromising on the benefits of a modern lifestyle.